Rival operatives suspect that Elizabeth Warren’s story about a sexist comment from Bernie Sanders is the latest in a series of desperate moves from her campaign team to regain the momentum she once had in the Democratic presidential primary.
“As the campaign heats up, many operatives whose interests are less in winning but rather in keeping the money flowing, have no problem throwing hand grenades at allies,” said Nomiki Konst, a Sanders supporter and former Democratic National Committee member.
Recommended Stories
On Monday, a story citing two people Warren talked to right after the meeting and two others who were familiar with it said that during a private 2018 dinner between Sanders and Warren, the Vermont senator said that he did not think a woman could win in 2020. Sanders immediately denied the report.
Faced with outrage and those demanding to know whether the aides’ descriptions were true, Warren on Monday evening confirmed the story herself. “Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed,” the Massachusetts senator said.
Those close to the Sanders campaign told the Washington Examiner that they suspected the original story was deliberately planted by the Warren campaign.
“The timing of this clearly shows that this is a desperate move,” a top Sanders aide reportedly said. “Unfortunately, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has been going down in the polls, and this is the latest attack on one of her leading competitors.”
Sanders’s national press secretary, without pointing out Warren specifically, appeared to express a similar sentiment while commenting on a California poll that showed Sanders in the lead and Warren in third place. “This is why they’re desperate,” she said in a tweet Monday night.
A few months ago, Warren was the breakout left-wing “I have a plan for that” star in the Democratic presidential field. At one point, she passed former Vice President Joe Biden in RealClearPolitics’ average of national primary polls. At 70, she is younger and appears healthier than Sanders, 78, who survived a heart attack in October.
But Warren sunk in the polls at the end of the year as her plan on how to pay for a single-payer “Medicare for all” plan was criticized, and Sanders rose in the polls.
Analysts believe that only one of the left-wing firebrands can survive past the Feb. 11 New Hampshire primary. That makes three weeks before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses prime time for Warren to break the nonaggression pact she and Sanders had for the last year.
Signs of Warren’s desperation started Sunday with Warren’s reaction to a Sanders volunteer script, escalated with a Warren fundraising email, and continued Monday with Warren’s allegation of Sanders’s sexist comment.
Volunteers for Sanders were encouraged to tell voters leaning toward Warren that she brings “no new bases into the Democratic Party” and only appeals to “highly-educated, more affluent people,” according to a script obtained by Politico.
The day after news broke, the Massachusetts senator delivered an unusually detailed and pointed reaction to the news. “I was disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me. Bernie knows me and has known me for a long time,” Warren told reporters in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Sunday.
A hundred miles away in Iowa City, Sanders distanced himself from the volunteer campaign script, attempting to deescalate the situation.
“We have over 500 people on our campaign. People do certain things. I’m sure that in Elizabeth’s campaign, people do certain things as well,” Sanders said. “But you have heard me for months. I have never said a negative word about Elizabeth Warren, who is a friend of mine.”
Warren’s campaign did not stand down, fundraising off the Sanders volunteer script on Sunday night.
“Bernie Sanders’ campaign is instructing volunteers to dismiss our broad-based, inclusive campaign,” read a fundraising email from Warren campaign manager Roger Lau. “This type of attack isn’t about disagreeing on issues — it’s about dismissing the potency of our grassroots movement.”
Then came the story about the meeting between Warren and Sanders, news of which went public days after a former 2020 Democrat, former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, backed Warren.
“This is the Warren playbook. She takes the low road. No surprise this is coming out now after the biggest attack dog in the race — Castro — endorsed her,” an aide to a third campaign told the Washington Examiner. “She’s taken low blows at Biden, Pete, and now Sanders. It was only a matter of time.”
In the wake of backlash over the sexist comment allegation, Warren on Tuesday tried to get back on track. She released yet another policy plan: eliminating up to $50,000 student loan debt for 95% of borrowers through executive action rather than relying on Congress. That, too, was labeled by many observers as a desperate move to get away from the Sanders story.
“The problem is that while it may help with fundraising or knock an opponent down a few points, it ultimately hands the election to Trump,” Konst said. “My advice to progressives is that now is the time to come together in supporting the only progressive who can beat Trump: Bernie Sanders.”
Joseph Simonson contributed to this story.
